Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The demise of Wardog

It is a sad day for democracy when an independent political blogger, 'Wardog', has been hounded by the Scottish press because he called Labour MP Murphy a c**t. (The same word that Peter Mandleson was reported to have used to describe reporters from the 'Sun' newspapers. Mandleson said that he had used the word 'chump' to describe those reporters.) Those Scottish newspapers contacted his place of employment and 'Wardog' has since had to retire from blogging.For the Scotsman link: http://news.scotsman.com/education/Lecturer-faces-blog-inquiry.5846750.jpThe question you have to ask yourself is whether this use of that word is what he was hounded for or was he hounded for the frequent 'Freedom of Information' questions that he was pursuing? One of those FOIs was where William Bain, now Labour MP for Glasgow North East, was living. During the campaign Willie Bain described himself as living in the constituency but, strangely, he held a post as a lecturer in London where he worked 3 days per week. He told the press that he stayed at his mothers place in Springburn, Glasgow. I don't know how he managed to afford to travel home every week when working in London yet living in Glasgow. Surely lecturers wages are not that great, so they keep telling us, and yet he can afford to do this constant travelling and be able to live in London as well. I 'happened' to visit Hammersmith & Fulham town hall and 'happened' to notice a William Bain living at an address in London given as his place of residence in London and found he was registered to vote in Hammersmith & Fulham. Yet, the Labour party in Glasgow denied that William Bain was registered to vote in London. No Scottish media reporter has ever asked William Bain this question. What is so important about this question? William Bain founded his campaign on his insistence that he lived in the Glasgow NE constituency and was, therefore, a local. He also used this 'fact' to attack the SNP candidate for not being local. This would be something that could have been easily checked by any Scottish media investigative reporter. However, the Scottish media, in my opinion, have been consistent in not asking any probing questions to any Scottish Labour MP or MSP. Make of that what you will.